SATRAP - Persian Governor
SABOT - Type of Sandal
Actually, Games does publish a bi-monthly magazine called World of Puzzles. It has quite a few traditional crosswords of various difficulties, along with a whole bunch of other kinds of paper-and-pencil puzzles. I buy mine at Barnes and Noble.
I think that there are also published volumes of New York Times puzzles in the book section of B&N.
Wow! I discovered this thread late and I still get to add
ASTA - Nick and Nora’s dog
ARTE - comedian Johnson
ETUI - sewing something or other
and I’m ashamed to admit when I sold a crossword I used
OPIE (mayberry boy), OBIT last bio, and RAND - I clued it ‘mapmaker’s first name?’, but the editor
changed it to ‘South African currency.’
As a sometime crossword puzzle constructor (my puzzles have appeared in the New York Times, New York Newsday, USA Today, and Games World of Puzzles), let me say, on behalf of puzzle fans:
WE UNDERSTAND! Honest!
Within the puzzle industry, we have a phrase for words like “adit” and “erne” and “esne” (a serf): “crosswordese.” And I can tell you first-hand, editors of the major crosswords are trying hard to cut down on usage of those old chestnuts. Will Shortz, editor of the New York Times puzzle, regularly rejects puzzles that use more than a few such entries.
But I have to tell you, it’s VERY hard to avoid them completely.
Imagine that you’re playing Scrabble. What are the letters you get stuck with most often? The vowels, of course, along with S, T, R, L and N. Have you ever been stuck with a bunch of such letters toward the end of a game, when the board is mostly filled in? You find yourself resorting to ANY word, however cheap, to get rid of the letters you’re stuck with. And that’s precisely the bind a crossword constructor often finds himself in.
It’s very easy to get stuck in a corner with an E _ R E. So, what can you do? Erie (the lake), Erle, (as in Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner), or Erne (the sea bird).
Not surprisingly, you see those entires in puzzles all the time. It gets old, I know, but there’s no neat way around it.
Personally, there’s something I hate far more than those obscure words! One clue that always drives me nuts is:
“Able was I _ saw Elba”
Look, I understand how easy it is to get stuck with an E R _ I… but puzzle constructors should have more pride than that. “EREI” just isn’t an acceptable entry, in my opinion.
As was mentioned earlier, a puzzle constructor is always in dire need of 3, 4 and 5 letter words that have alternating vowels and consonants- ESPECIALLY words using the most common letters of the alphabet. So, for a puzzle constructor, words like “EVE,” “EWE” and “ERE” are indispensable. So are “OMEN,” “OVAL,” “EVIL,” etc.
That’s why, a few years back, during the O.J. Simpson trial, the name Lance ITO was a godsend! That trial is fading in people’s memories, but I guarantee that you’ll be seeing Judge ITO in crosswords for years to come!
Other great names for constructors? Well, among movie and TV actors, there’s UMA Thurman, EWAN MacGregor, LILI Taylor, LARA Flynn Boyle, NANA Visitor (of “Deep Space 9”).
We really hope MENA Suvari becomes a huge star. In sports, we just love Hideo NOMO. In the music biz, LULU (“To Sir With Love”) is always useful, as are SADE (even though “Smooth Operator” was a looong time ago), Irene CARA (“Fame” singer), NONA Hendryx, rapper ICE-T, et al.
And, in general, any 4 letter word that uses the common letters is great. That’s why we constructors like supermodel ELLE Macpherson and new age singer ENYA so much. We also love to eat OREO cookies, and wash them down with EVIAN. And we’re hoping you remember ELIAN Gonzalez for years to come.
And we’re always hoping fate of popular culture will give us a new definition for an ancient chestnut. I mean, who the heck remembers UTA Hagen these days? Nobody! So, we have to hope for a new celebrity to come along with the name “Uta,” so we can use that name again! ELI Wallach is awfully long in the tooth now, so it would be nice to see a new celeb named Eli come along. How about a new actress named AVA, so we can give Ava Gardner a rest?
And sometimes we get lucky that way. Thanks to U2, BONO doesn’t have to mean just Cher’s ex-husband.
Hey astorian - you forgot to add YMA Sumac!
And if you’re responsible for some of those horrible, wickedly hard puzzles that I’ve worked and sweated and torn my hair out over, why… thanks very much! I enjoyed them immensely!
astorian:
I’m a huge fan of both Games puzzle publications. I must say, however, that I have an almost sick love for clues such as the one mentioned above. If one is stuck with the letters E,R,I, and _, better “Able was I…” than another flyby by the dubious “erne”. I think there’s kind of a pride in coming up with other possiblities–even if it does stretch things a bit. So for ER_I, how about:
- NBC Hospital Detective: ER P.I.
- Edward R. Murrow, the first: ERMI
- Baseball Mistake and Redemption:** E RBI**
- Draft version of the Equal Rights Amendment?: ERA I
- “The Baby Caesar is…IV today…no he’s…uh V…______?” :…er…VI
- “________ oesn’ ik ak oy”: ERBI
- Highway 1, heading from the Pacific to the Atlantic:** E. RD I**
Oh, how could I forget every puzzlemaker’s favorite architect, EERO Saarinen?
Or our favorite record producer, Brian ENO?
Or our favorite folk singer ANI DiFranco? (She’d better have another hit soon, or we’re back to using the bird definition!)
Look, there’s no way around it- we constructors HAVE to use certain words and names over and over. Luckily, some old taboos have been lifted. For instance, using brand names was once verboten in puzzles, but now it’s considered okay. As a result, you’re more likely to see OREO now than OLEO (yes, OREO will be overused, but at least it’s a name people actually recognize, a word ordinary people actually use!) If a constructor is stuck in a corner with A _ I _, he’s now more likely to use AVIS car rentals than an ADIT (mine entrance).
And if we can’t eliminate the chestnuts, at the very least, we can try to make up more clever clues for them.